Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story (2010)

Twisted Love

"Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" starts on the 9th February 2005 with a narration from Maria Korp (Rebecca Gibney) as she gets up for another ordinary day, a day which ended up anything but ordinary when she is hit, strangled and bundled into the boot of her own car before being left for dead at the side of the road still in the boot of the car. What follows on from there takes us back to May 1990 when Maria met the persistent Joe Korp (Vince Colosimo) who went above and beyond to win her affection, which he did and they married just 3 months later. And then some years down the line we see how Joe embarks on an affair with Tania (Maya Stange) who he met online and how this affair evolved with Maria and Joe's family knowing of his extra-marital relations. There is more to "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" than just this but this is where I will leave it because if like me you don't know everything about the true story of Maria Korp it makes you keep on watching as at times it seems like the saying "stranger than fiction".

Now "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" is an unusual movie, not so much in story but its tone because at times it almost seems like it is trying to be darkly funny. Now darkly funny movies are not unusual but when I say this is a movie based on a true story it becomes out of character especially one which involves a love triangle and attempted murder. Now I don't know much about the true story on which "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" is based as unlike many of these true story movies this one is actually Australian but what I do know makes me even more surprised by the tone of the movie because the story has many emotive angles.

The thing is the true story of Maria Korp is a fascinating one, not just in what happened before the 9th February 2005 but also what happened afterwards. It is a story which actually has some depth to it, more than just the unusual love triangle because we have what happened after Maria is found almost dead in the boot of her car after 4 days, all of which you can read about online. But "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" has this very unusual tone going on which borders on the darkly funny especially with the set up of Maria seemingly narrating from beyond the grave, something we discover very quickly. It almost fees like those who decided to dramatize this true story saw it as being stranger than fiction and darkly amusing rather than hard hitting which to be honest doesn't feel right even when you take into consideration the quirkiness of the love triangle,

The daft thing is that whilst the tone of "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" felt wrong to me, especially considering there are family members who have to deal with what happened, the actual acting is good. Rebecca Gibney is brilliant as Maria as is Maya Stange as Tania and with how the story is played out with the comic tone they both deliver that side perfectly. But the stand out performance comes from Vince Colosimo as Joe who not only comes across as charming but also delusional as in how he felt he could carry on in a love triangle with his mistress and her daughter living just down the street from his family.

What this all boils down to is that "Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story" is on one hand a fascinating movie because of the true story it is based upon. But in a way the tone of the movie which at times seems almost comical feels simply wrong.